The Quiet One
by X-Mixer's Strange Library
Summary: Instead of Ino, Hinata is the one to approach a bizarre Sakura Haruno. Hinata feels strongly that Sakura is more than what meets the eye. She couldn't have possibly guessed how right she was. Happy Halloween! One-shot.


**I do not own Naruto. Support it by supporting Masashi Kishimoto by supporting the official release!**

* * *

 **The Quiet One**

Hora* Haruno.

That's what they call her.

The pink haired anti-socialite makes the timid Hinata Hyuuga look like the bell of the ball.

Her teal eyes always have this strangle hazy look to them. Hinata only ever hears her speak when the teachers are addressing her. Sakura didn't even snap at the academy bullies who kept calling her a "Billboard Brow". Instead she'd just throw her empty gaze at them… or through them. Her head would tilt side to side. It was like she kept wondering who was speaking and what they were saying. Eventually, the bullies would just get creeped out and leave. They don't acknowledge her from up close anymore.

Sakura, in turn, acknowledges no one if she doesn't have to. She retreats, always distancing herself from other students whenever possible. Particularly when the class is outside in the meadows, the pinkette will lurk in the shadows of the trees and merely stare the others with that bizarre glazed look in her eyes.

Honestly, she isn't _that_ different from Hinata. The light-eyed girl should know, she finds herself studying the other girl quite often. It seems she just can't help it, just can't ignore her. That's why the Hyuuga heiress has come to a decision: she will approach Sakura Haruno. She would finally talk to someone outside her own family on her own whim! _I'm gonna do it!_ She thinks to herself confidently, clenching her little fists. What was more, she would be the first to approach Sakura with amnesty in mind. Even Ino whom Hinata had seen obviously contemplate the same thing ended up backing off in the end. The shy heiress would be the first one to reach out to her fully!

The small brunette shakily makes her way over to said tree-lurker. She approaches Sakura from the side to give herself a little leeway before conversation. As the Hyuuga draws closer, regret starts hammering her in the gut. Her timid nature is starting to get the best of her again. However, she forces herself to breath and size up the pinkette. Their nearly identical in height. It isn't surprising 'cause their both six. Sakura's hands looked to be anchoring her to the tree as she gazes at the other students, like she's scared she'll float away. The ability to sympathize gives Hinata the push she needs to close in.

Sakura doesn't break her line of sight even though Hinata's only a yard to her left.

 _Here it goes!_

"…Hi." It barely comes out as a whisper and Sakura remains statue-still. Hinata urges herself to be louder. "Hello." Nothing changes. "Sakura." Not even a twitch. She sucks in a big gulp of air and for the first time in her life, she yells. "Hey, Sakura!"

Haruno whips her head around so unnaturally fast, the brunette almost tumbles backwards. She barely manages to stay standing as hollow teal orbs pin her in place, yet looking past her. A long minute passes by; Sakura's only other movement is caused by her breathing. It's clear Hinata must be the one to speak.

Right, she's come this far. Now what? "H-hello…S-s-sakura-chan!" Release the tension. "I-I'm…not here …t-to hurt or make f…fun of you!" Deep. Breaths. "I just wanted to…to introduce myself…I'm Hinata Hyuuga."

It takes a minute but the tiniest sliver of light enters the girl's eyes. "Why are you here?" Her voice is soft and a little dry. Her head tilts just a bit.

"I don't…think you deserve to be by yourself!" Hinata ventures, determined not to lose any metaphorical footing. _It hurts to be lonely._ She felt that pain every time she was anywhere but home, forced to be an island onto herself. Sakura surely feels it too. Even if it doesn't seem obvious to anyone but her.

Teal eyes brighten just a little more, and Sakura finally seems to be looking _at_ her. Though she says nothing else.

Hinata supposes that's just enough progress has been made, if only for today. "Well…if you ever feel like talking, I'm around…see ya!" She turns tail and runs but somehow feels Sakura nod in response. A beaming expression fills her heart. _I finally did something brave!_ How happy she feels is probably undeserved but she doesn't care. Hinata Hyuuga, a timid turtle of a human being, reached out to someone.

She hopes it pays off.

* * *

It doesn't talk long for Hinata to see the results of her actions.

At lunch the next day, Sakura quietly sits down at the brunette's table with a small burlap bag of something.

"H-hi!" Her cheeks blush like usual but Hinata's smile is pure and glad.

"Hey," Sakura rasps back. "Thought I'd take you up on the invitation." She explains while undoing her the string to her sack. It falls open to reveal some unsettling colored leaves. Shades of green splotched together with blood-red edging the fringe of the leaf.

Hinata's seen Sakura eat these before. In fact, she's pretty sure it's the only thing Sakura ever eats. Not wanting to scare her off, she ignores the herbs and tries to speak of something else. "Uh...Sakura…it's a nice day, isn't it?" No one says that you need to start big.

"It's all right," Sakura replies blandly, making a somewhat bitter expression as she chews and chokes down the vegetation she brought.

Okay, so the pinkette's not the picture of social grace either. The Hyuuga heiress knew this before she took the challenge. All she needs to do is bide her time and think. It doesn't take long for her to form another question. "Sakura-chan, do you have any brother or sisters?"

"Nope, just me and my mommy and daddy," she said as her hand squeeze some of the leaves to pulp. "They don't need more than me..." Instead of shell-like, Sakura's eyes get hard as stone for the slightest moment. Then the look leaves as quick as it came. "How 'bout you?" She says suddenly as if trying to distance herself from her response quickly.

Hinata tries to pretend not to notice. "My little sister was just born!" Her wide grin can't be helped. She always treasures another family member to talk to and can't wait to start acting like a big sister. Something stops her upswing. "Then there's neji…He's a cousin of mine." A frown takes over. Neji tries to hide how upset he is about being marked but the heiress can tell, their friendships been hurt badly. The shy girl has never really understood the need for that mark.

Silence claims them for minutes ate a time, leaving Hinata to pick at her bento. Eventually she notices there's some extra gossiping going on this lunch period. She looks to a table close by. A group poorly attempts to hide the fact they were obviously pointing and commenting. _I bet they wouldn't have stopped if Sakura were by herself. That's not right._

"Hey Sakura," the brunette breaths. "I'm sorry."

Haruno looks up, her eyes wide and her face befuddled. "For what?" Is all she can ask.

"The only reason the other kids don't bother me is because I'm from the honored Hyuuga Clan," she admitted tears threatening to fall from her eyes "But you and me behave almost the same way!"

"Shannaro…" Sakura says almost immediately, smiling for the first time her new friend can remember. "I don't care about them. They can talk their stupid-talk about me all they want." Her voice is strong with sincerity. "You're the one who matters, the one who wants to talk to me and know me." Her smile only gets bigger, reaching her eyes and making them look real.

Hinata can only sit there, stunned. Suddenly, sunlight is haloing Sakura and the picture is heavenly, truly beautiful. The Hyuuga is finally and _genuinely_ important to someone outside the Clan. Important and acknowledged. She sniffs. She won't cry, even though she's so happy!

The rest of lunch goes very quietly. They speak seldom and briefly, yet meaningfully. Although it's perfectly all right with both. It's the company that they enjoy. They have many lunches like that. Soon, they work with each other in class whenever possible. They even find reasons to laugh together.

Many days go by that way. Things are good.

* * *

Hinata's wide awake with worry.

She couldn't help noticing that Sakura's changed a little these past few months. She's gotten kind of sluggish. Not silent and distant how she usually is or was. She truly seems lethargic. Her sentences take extra work for her to form and she trips for no reason. When she spaces out now, it isn't her own choice. Her teal orbs will flutter from this classmate to that classmate and she'll bite her lip until blood dribbles out. What's worse is that her skin has taken on a the lightest of gray tints, her eyes have sunken in and a few subtle white hairs could be seen in her hairdo.

 _What should I do? I don't want to press her but-_

Anything she's thinking about is suddenly cut off by her door opening. Instinct tells her it isn't any of her family. The footfalls are too heavy and not at all elegant. A ball of ice forms in her gut and she lies still. Her eyes stay fixated on the ceiling. Her heart is hammering the boiling blood through her veins. It's an intruder!*

 _What do I do? If I scream he might kill me!_ She isn't well-trained enough to fight someone off yet! Not by a long shot. Is she fast enough to run past him? Does she want to risk that? What will the consequences be if she can't? She's too young to die here!

All too soon, he's standing over her. He only has one eye and he's wearing a ninja forehead protector. Why is a shinobi in her room? What did she do to deserve that?! He clearly sees that she's awake and merely stares at her. An eternity of noiselessness passes. Even the crickets have stopped. He's trying to see what she'll do first, out of some morbid curiosity. What will she do first?!

It happens all too fast. Hinata subconsciously wonders who's screaming is the loudest.

Her own scream, the ninja's scream, or the deranged, demonic shrieking of whatever flings his blood all over the room.

Her father rushes in followed by her uncle. The ninja is lying a few feet from her in his own steadily pooling blood. There's b _ites_ taken out of him. In some places, the bone in on display, if it's even still there.

After they force themselves to get over their initial shock, they scan the room for whatever killed her would-be kidnapper. There's nothing. Nothing but a lot of crimson splatter on her walls. The men don't bother asking her what happened. It's obvious from her traumatized, gob smacked expression that she doesn't have anything to tell them. Her father carries her out and away from the corpse.

As they leave, Hinata's eyes catch something in the corner of the ceiling where the moonlight won't reach. In the dark corner, flashing green eyes catch the brunette's. Nothing but a shadowy outline can be seen clinging to the wall. It lifts what must be its finger to its mouth. As it shushes her, it's needle-like teeth give of an eerie glow that allows them to be seen. Fresh crimsons dripping from them like dew on grass.

Hinata's stunned more silent, if that's even possible. She doesn't scream again-she can't.

It isn't there when she comes back in the morning, thankfully. A whole night of running around the compound and leaves Hiashi and Hizashi with one conclusion: they don't know what the hell kind of creature killed the kidnapping ninja. They just know it's gone now.

Why Hinata hasn't told her father what she saw, she honestly doesn't know. Her room has been cleared of…the mess. For paranoia's sake, she checks the exact corner where she saw _it._ She almost has a panic attack all over again with she sees the gouge marks in the wood. That had to be how the thing was perching itself. An ominous feeling tells her something. She looks down at her feet. All the air leaves her body as she feels herself turn to stone. She doesn't know how it was missed by the cleaners, but it was.

There's a single thin pink hair on the floor.

* * *

Hinata walks the streets of Konoha by herself today, a fresh Genin.

She'll spend time with her teammates later. Right now, she just wants solitude.

Well, "solitude". Green eyes keep shining at here from the dark alleyways now and then. Sakura must be in one of her coy moods again. It's so strange of her. She knows Hinata trusts that she won't hurt her. _We all have our problems._ Given, the pinkette's is far more…unsavory. But she isn't evil. Hinata knows that. Why else would she have protected her that fateful night?

" _Because you're precious to me Hinata, you really are!"_

" _Sakura, I won't ever tell a soul or turn on you. You're precious to me too."_

The pinkette looked healthily flesh-colored when teams where assigned today. She wasn't starving herself again. Maybe the fact that she was freshly feed made her feel a little guilty around the Hyuuga. Which was dumb! But Haruno would be Haruno.

 _Sakura, that day when I confronted you and saw all the pain in your eyes as I asked you for the truth, I knew I couldn't leave you all alone. That I didn't want to._

So, maybe Neji's way of thinking is right _sometimes_. Maybe there are some things about destiny that can't be changed. Sakura didn't choose to be born the way she was any more than her cousin did. However, they could choose to find other things that defined them, like their friends. If the Haruno couldn't figure out how to escape her birthright, maybe Hinata could. God knows she hasn't stopped trying yet. Even if she's a failure, she refuses to fail Sakura. The future ahead will likely never stop looking uncertain.

But the two will always stick one another no matter what. Because no one ever deserves to be alone.

"Hey, Hinata! Is Sakura Onee-chan playing hide and seek again? I can't find her anywhere! We're supposed to be on the same team!" He flailed in agitation.

Hinata laughs and hustles over to the boisterous blonde ninja ahead of her. She promises him that Sakura will reappear when she's ready, and takes the pouting boy for some ramen.

After all. Naruto doesn't deserve to be alone either.

* * *

 **A/N:1* Hora just means "Horror" in Japan. The other academy students are literally calling Sakura a horror villain. Don't judge me; it's alliteration!**

 **2* I'm aware that Hinata is closer to 3 years old when she's kidnapped. But for the sake of the story and not having to write three-year-old speak, I pushed it back.**

 **I do want to do something more with this, which is why I left some things unanswered, but it's gonna be a while. I mean a WHILE. Depending on how, my archive is looking down the road, expect something NEXT October at the earliest:( Still I wanted to do something a little spoopy for Halloween.**

 **It would really help me out if you guys gave me feedback. So long as you remain polite, I'm totally open to hearing critiques. It helps me grow much faster and have nothing but appreciation for it**

 **Thank you for reading and have a** **Happy Halloween!**


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